Episode 16: Jason and Tracy on School Starting

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So we've heard from both boys about school. I guess what are we looking forward to with the school year?

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Um, routine. I'm looking forward to that. Um, I'm not looking forward to being uh chauffeur because it's a lot of back and forth um when they have two different schedules. But I am also looking forward to them um having school lunches and not eating us out of house and home all summer.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

It's a daily occurrence to have to go to the grocery store.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Yeah, I think that they are eating like their hollow they have hollow legs, they're growing. I mean, Jack's as tall as you are. Tyler's almost as tall as I am. They're just getting big, they're growing up.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

I guess we asked them what they did over the summer.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

And they had no response. Like we did all kinds of things, and I love that. They're like, oh, video games, oh, I hung out with the animals and made sure they were fine. But we've done all kinds of things. Like, we went up, like, but summer here is so long, I think they forget all the things that we did, don't you think?

SPEAKER_00 1:05

That's true. We went to the Algarve and a Lisbon. Jack went to Lisbon with his class on that summertime class trip.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

I mean, we went to the Lego store and did all kinds of Legos. We've had a lot of fun family game nights. That's been a great time. We've gone to River Beach, we've, you know, um gone to a few things in town. I think that they're just like ready. I think they're ready too. And I think that's saying something because I don't think they were ready when they would have had to go back to school um in the US. But at the same time, you know, Tyler wasn't done with school until like the 15th of June. And then we thought Jack was going to have to take all of his exams, and then that lasted until like the 23rd of June. So they weren't done until the end of June, really. So I guess it gives us an idea of what this year will be like, too.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

I guess it's a different different pace of life and a different schedule. So we're so ingrained with starting school in the middle of August that starting school in the middle of September is kind of like you don't know what to do almost that last three or four weeks. I've always felt that August has always been my least favorite month of the year by far and away, even though that's when my birthday is, and and there's anniversaries and stuff, because I don't know, the lazy days of summer are pretty much over by August, and the days are getting noticeably shorter, and it's at some point it's like, all right, let's just get this over with and get on with starting school and all this other stuff.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Well, and see, I have always loved August and back to school. It's the school supplies and the start of year and all of that excitement. But this is the first year I haven't done back to school. Like I haven't been involved in faculty development sessions, I haven't been like moving and welcome back and all these other things. That's really the first time I haven't done that, and it's felt so weird. So weird because I see it all online and like, oh, I miss pieces of that. Not all of it, but I miss pieces of that. At the same time, I'm excited for, you know, the change, like the shift.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Well, there's still back to school shopping that needs done because we haven't.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

We haven't done any of that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Of course, I don't know, do they give a list here like they do in the US of of all the things you need before you start?

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Um I think there's like an unwritten list. It's not a real list. Like it's an unwritten you should know. And the only reason why we know what the boys need is because they were we had to get some of those things already in March, but we've got to go through what they have and see what else they need. I love Jack's worried about pins, as you can tell. Um he never thinks he has enough, and I think that just like um some of the other things, they get set down and misplaced and all of that. So um I think that there's pieces of it that we already know. Um, but there'll be other things too, I'm sure. I think I'll get more information. So the way that all of this works here is very different. Um there will be a required meeting where I will have to go. Um Jason will could go if he's not working um and presenting. But the um student has to be there as well. They'll go over all the expectations and all the rules. That's where we'll get all of the things that you must have, all of that kind of stuff. But in true Portugal fashion, this will probably happen the night before school starts. Right? And I've and it's the sixth grade and the ninth grade, so there'll be two different um sessions and all of that kind of stuff. So I have a feeling that that we're expected to just know. Because there have been back to school stuff out since what, August 1st? Uh maybe the 15th. I don't know. There's been back to school stuff out this whole time, but it doesn't start until the 15th of September. So it's really weird. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

So the boys are redoing ninth grade and sixth grade. They actually passed their classes in the spring, but they weren't in class long enough in Portugal to actually move on, so they're they're gonna redo. But I think that overall you know think about well, let's back up. They'll be retaking, and that's probably a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

I think it's a great thing. Um our goal when they got here was for them to just kind of get adjusted and learn a little bit of Portuguese and try and figure out what was going on. And now they surpassed that. Like they they did, and all of their instructors were like, if this was just based on passing classes, then we would let them. But federal law here says that you must be enrolled in Portuguese school for at least two of the three terms, which means they would have had to been here since January for that to actually happen. Um, and that's not what the way it worked. So I think though that um even if we hadn't moved until the end of the academic year, they would have still had to repeat. Well, Jack would have had to repeat ninth. Tyler might have been able to move on to seventh because there are no exams there, but you have to prove that you know the information at the end of ninth grade in order to move on to secondary school. So we'll see how all of this goes.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

But the second thing I was going to say is we've talked about it several times, how we thought they would finish last school year in online American school, and then that all fell apart the first couple of days that we were here. But think about if they had been able to finish the school year online, or if we had just said, oh well, we'll just ride it out for a few months. They would they wouldn't have been starting school in Portugal until now, and then there would be all the anxiety all summer of how does school here work. In some ways, I think that getting thrown into it unexpectedly one week into us being here was probably the best thing that could have happened to them because it forced them to deal with it almost immediately, and so hopefully it reduces some of the anxiety now about starting another school year.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

I don't think they're anxious about starting school at all. I think that they just don't want to. I think it's more of the I like not having to do certain things and I know that these will be long days and now I'm gonna have to do things more than I'm terrified about going to school. And I think that's saying something because there was real fear there. Um so that I think that you're right. I cannot imagine while we thought it would reduce their anxiety to go into online school and to finish there. I do think that you're right that it would have made this infinitely worse. Um, because they wouldn't have had any touchstones or connections or known how to read their schedules or any of those basic skills that they already have now. So they know the unwritten rules. And I think that that's the important thing. They know the unwritten rules and the cultural expectations, which they would have had not a clue about. Um, this also gave us the opportunity for each of them to take the Portuguese língua nau materna exam to get their language level to ensure that they had all of the language supports that they needed going into this academic year, and that the school could actually argue for the resources in order to make that happen. And I think that that in and of itself is going to set them up for success in a way that otherwise I don't think that they would have gotten.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Well, they would never have met Jervagia and gotten all of the secondary support that they've gotten, um, all the different things that have happened.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

And I cannot imagine navigating the last three months of the school year without Gervagia. Like, I can't even imagine, like, she's also a support and a touchstone person for me. I can't imagine that at all. Um, I also can't imagine, you know, not knowing the the two directors or heads of their their turns and their grades, and I'm hopeful that they'll be the same people that they'll be working with, but I also know that they know all of the teachers at that level, and so it's okay, even if it's not the same person who's in charge of their turn, because they've already met them, which is huge. Um, and I've met them, and I think that that's also helpful. Um, I'm excited to see all of the ways that I can be involved that I didn't feel like I could be involved in the school before. You know, like what are what are the things that parents do? Like when we're Jack's gonna have to do bake sales and he's gonna have to get all these things ready to earn his way. I want him to earn this trip at the end of this next year and it all be him and not us just being like, we need you to go, it's gonna be great. Here, let's pay for it. So I I'm excited for that. I can hardly wait to be a part of it. I am looking forward to like, you know, whenever they need a volunteer or anything that they need, I'm excited to be a piece of that. And now I have enough Portuguese that I can at least get by and understand more. Um, God, like I just can't even imagine. Um, I also think, and I wonder, like, we're not the only people in town whose children need lingua naomaterna classes, but we are the first people from the US, right, that have been in this situation at this school. We also are um the first people that um have moved here that have education as a background. And so that I think has been really helpful for these teachers because they've asked me. I did not go in and say, look, you know, second language acquisition, all of those things, this is me. Like, you know, intercultural communication, this is what I do. Let me just get in here and fix things. Instead, I said, Well, can you talk to me about the philosophy? Let's talk about pedagogy, let's talk about your approach, let's talk about those things. I'd ask those kinds of questions. They asked me those kinds of questions too. Like, what is it like? What are we looking for? What is that kind of transition and expectation? And so it felt much more like a team effort, honestly, than we've ever had that experience for education at the middle school level or beyond, you know. And I find that interesting because this is really middle school. So in middle school, we suddenly became really hands-off parents, right? We're like, well, we're done now. We just get to go. Oh, they're going to their classes. What things do they need? Like, I don't know. I met their teachers once, twice a year. I don't really know them. It's completely different. Um, you know, like there's one counselor who's the head of the year for everybody. Not, you know, I mean, it's just, it's not exactly the same. It felt very much more like a team effort and a team piece of it. And I think that was very helpful. Because I could then say, okay, when things didn't work, I could say, here are the bare necessities or here are the basics of what I see have I would give my students as English language learners. Um, and here's how I would meet those needs. Because at one point, I mean, Jack didn't pass a test, and it's because he didn't understand it, and the teacher didn't speak any English, and he got himself in a situation where he missed half of the test because he didn't understand the instructions, and the teacher just repeated the instructions on the sheet, and he couldn't use his phone, and he didn't know what to do, and so it was like, okay, now I'll go ahead and step in and say, here's a suggestion, here are the lists of things that that I would say, you know, this is what I would suggest. These are the kinds of accommodations that I would expect. Um, and then they were like, That's fantastic, here are the things that we can do. We haven't thought about X, Y, and Z, um, because they really haven't had the experience before.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Well, it's definitely as the dinosons' turn having to enroll them in school one week into being here. But it's one of those butterfly flaps its wings kind of things, almost, which really has been the story of our time here in Portugal. But I think about if we hadn't done that, like we said, they wouldn't have met Gervagia and gotten involved with that. I'm not sure that Tyler would have taken his like uh the lessons that he took or Jack with uh their private Portuguese lessons. Maybe they would have, but maybe they wouldn't have. There were bullying issues that seemed to stop in the school around the time that they they got enrolled. Um you wouldn't admit Senor Antonio, who guards the gate at the school.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

I love Senor Antonio. We have wonderful conversations, and so he helps me practice my Portuguese every day. But yeah, I there are so many people who've become integral parts of our lives that we wouldn't have had that touch base with. And I feel like, you know, this is just our story, though. I mean, this is the way it works. Like something insane happens, and you think, is this going to be okay? How do we do this? We navigate it. And I my um my mantra has always been to say out loud, it'll be okay. It's okay. We've got this, it's okay, we've got this. But then you look back and you think this was a pivotal moment, and also, yes, we do have this, and we're so grateful for it.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Well, this is what we wanted in part with the move, though, was to be a part of a community and not just be I don't know. I've said to several people, we didn't want to move here and live in Little America in some enclave of English speaking people who go about their days doing American things or English speaker things. We wanted to be a part of the actual true community here. Yeah. And we found a place where we've been able to do that and we've become a part of the community. I'm sure there's things that we have yet to learn and get better at to be better community members. Uh we're still the eccentric Americans. That's probably always gonna be the case though, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 15:39

I we will always be the eccentric Americans, but I think we'll be more the eccentric Americans that are part of the group. And I think that's what I'm looking forward to this year. We didn't have the opportunity to be part of the group from the beginning. Um, and now we will be. And I think that that's very exciting because yeah, they can get to know us.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

All right, I think that wraps it up for this episode about school and summertime. Catch us again next time.